Jeg har kjørt bort, og jeg kommer ikke tilbake!

Well, we made it

(nearly)

to the top of the world.

69° 56’ N 23° 18’ E

Alta, Norway.

Nicknamed the Town of the Northern Lights – though I have to imagine many towns within the Arctic Circle also boast this claim.

We had two days to explore the area with the hopes that we could go up into the mountains in the evening to see the elusive (to our cruise ship apparently) Northern Lights.

The Finnmarksløpet (a sled dog race) started the morning we arrived.  It’s an annual race of 1,000 kilometres run over the course of 6 days through the mountains and across the frozen rivers of the Finnmark area of Norway & Sweden.  We didn’t dock early enough to see the start of the race, but we were able to participate in the festivities in downtown Alta. 

There was music playing when this happened.  Promise I didn’t just start busting a move on ice to the songs in my head.

To celebrate the race, there were ice sculptures and snow carvings in the main square along with craft booths, lots of food and blaring loud music.

Some bit back.

After all that time outside, we need a warm up.  Luckily we happened across a cozy little hut.

No, I don't know why there is a ladder on the roof

And they sold hot chocolate around several fireplaces.  What could have been better!

Fully warmed we headed out again to visit the Northern Lights Cathedral. The Cathedral was finished in 2013 and was built to resemble the Northern Lights.  I’m not sure I see it.  It cost a mere €16.2m to build and apparently was built 6 meters (about 20 ft) off the plans so the altar on the inside is off center so that it remains on the consecrated area.  (Yes, Mom I asked, they couldn’t just consecrate a new spot to move the altar to center of the building).

Having fully explored the downtown of Alta in about 2 hours … including the hour coffee stop … we got ready for our next adventure of the trip – Dog Sledding!

Go North Young Man

The last time we went through the North Sea we were on our way to the Baltic and the seas were so rough neither one of us felt much like dinner. Fortunately this time was a bit calmer and we made it to our first destination without getting thrown about our cabin.

On our way into port.

Ålesund occupies seven islands and lies about a quarter of the way up the coast of Norway. There’s not a great deal going on in this sleepy little town and its primary claim to fame are the multitude of art nouveau styled building that were constructed throughout the city after a 1904 fire that destroyed virtually the entire town and left 10,000 of its citizens homeless overnight. A majority of the buildings were constructed in the three years following the fire and the city received its initial shipment of supplies from Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany who often vacationed in the area.

Apart from touring the city for its architecture there is also a hill in the city of the main island that promised panoramic views of the surrounding area. Of course as soon as someone mentions hill you know Amanda and I feel compelled to climb it. Okay, actually it’s more me that feels compelled to climb every hill I can but I glad share my enthusiasm with my lovely (though occasionally whiny when she has to climb anything steep) wife. Thankfully for me the weather was good and the views were truly breathtaking.

Amanda taking aim at the ships below.

Are we done climbing yet?  The ship is down there.

When there's an obstacle on your path...

...limbo your way under it.

Apparently I wasn't amused.

Amanda was a bit hungry after our hike.

There also might be a statue of a local doing their best Captain Morgan impression.

The next day was a day at sea but to keep it interesting the Norwegians went ahead and provide some sights for us to look at along the way. The first was a monument to the 66° 33’ 44” N latitude that marks the crossing into the Arctic Circle. I believe this officially makes us arctic explorers.

The second sight of the day was the Svartisen Glacier. Svartisen is technically a compilation of two glaciers in the area, Vestre and Ostre, and has a combined area of approximately 145 square miles. The actual bit we got to see and is pictured below is a small arm of known as Engenbreen and maintains the lowest position of any glacier in Europe, ending a mere 20 meters (65 feet) from the ocean’s surface. It also has a thickness of approximately 450 meters or 1,475 feet. That would be 20 feet thicker than the Sears Tower in Chicago is tall! {Amanda editorial note: The Sears Tower is now the Willis Tower; and has been for the last 5 years.}  It’s also a rather surprising shade of blue. {Amanda editorial note: The glacier is blue; the Willis Tower is kinda blackish.}

On the up side, it was raining so the glacier was freshly washed and shinny.  On the less than up side, it was cold and raining which made viewing the glacier less than ideal.  We stayed on the deck as long as we could stand it before the captain turned the ship around and made his way to our next destination of Narvik.

There is evidence of settlement in and around Narvik dating back to the Stone Age and it is known that the Vikings often had settlements here as well, however it wasn’t until the 1870’s that Narvik began to be established as a modern city. It was around this time that the Swedes began to recognize the importance of iron ore and realized they would eventually need a port on the Atlantic coast from which to ship the mineral from its series of mines high in the mountains. So the Ofoten Railway was built to transport the ore from Sweden to Narvik and the area began to flourish as an industrial hub for the exportation of iron ore. It also served as a base for German warships during the World War II and the Battles of Narvik were eventually fought from the 9^th of April to 8^th of June 1940. The Allied forces ultimately won the battle for Narvik in early June only to evacuate the town buy the end of the same month, thus seeding the town, its people and port to the Germans after losing the Battle of France making the allied occupation of Narvik ultimately untenable.

One of the more touristy things you can do in Narvik is ride the cable car to the Narvikfjellet Ski Resort for more panoramic views. Unfortunately, the weather at the top of the mountain was apparently not conducive to swinging objects on a rope and the lifts were closed for the day. So what did we decide to do instead you ask? Why, walk up a hill of course. About a mile and half from the base of the lifts was a symbol for what I believed was a scenic lookout. Still armed with our camera and needing to kill some time before boarding the ship again we set off for the “scenic overlook”. After about a mile and half walk up a rather steeply inclined road we arrived at the Narvik Hydroelectric power station. Not an official scenic overlook at all. In fact, it turns out that the symbol on the map indicates were the Narvik Water Spout is released at 1pm and 9pm by the Hydroelectric station. Apparently the spout shoots up to 75 meters into the area and can be seen clearly by residents in the city below. And while not an official scenic viewpoint the views are all that bad.

Amanda trying to make sense of my map interpretation skills.

Dog Parking anyone?

After striking out in Narvik we had high hopes that Alta – the next port – would have slightly better weather and a few more open activities.

You’re going on vacation again?

Well, um. Yes.

This is the exact conversation my boss and I had about a week after we returned from our Baltic cruise and I subsequently asked for more time off.  Normally, I wouldn’t have hesitated.  The British are firm believers in the two week annual vacation, so disappearing for a fortnight is nothing to them.  But I wanted to go in March which is height of the accountant busy period and traditionally a big no-no for vacations in my world.  But, my biggest client this year had decided that they wanted to file three weeks earlier than normal (so the 28^th of Feb) and my smaller client wasn’t going to start until the end of March, so it seemed like the perfect time.

Plus, we had a great discount from the cruise company because of the problems aboard the ship.  You guys know me well enough to know I can’t pass up a good discount!  And on the bucket list of places to see in Europe has always been the Norwegian Fjords (as is a trip down the Amalfi Coast, but why would Adam let me plan a vacation somewhere warm when we could have the chance to wear all the clothing we own on a single day to keep the frostbite at bay??!). 

So we did it.  We booked a two week cruise through the fjords, past glaciers, into the Arctic Circle and went in search of the Northern Lights.

It was the same ship as the last cruise, but we opted for a lower cabin so that we wouldn’t get quite as much sway through the North Sea.  After the last cruise and our Irish ferry experience, we are well aware of the joys of sea sickness and wish to never repeat it again.  We also ticked the box on the application to have the cruise without the Norovirus so that we could have a slightly less exciting time on-board.

Maybe because going on an international trip has become slightly routine in our lives (how blasé does that sound?!) or more likely because Adam & I were both incredibly busy at work for the months of January & February, we didn’t exactly plan anything to do with this cruise.  Short of needing to be at Victoria Coach Station at 11:30am on Sunday, go through the fjords and return in two weeks, I couldn’t tell you anything about this trip prior to getting on the boat.  This led to a very interesting conversation at dinner the first evening when the gentleman next to me said, ‘are you excited to go to Amsterdam tomorrow?’ and I replied, ‘we’re going to Amsterdam?  I thought this was a Norwegian cruise.’  Adam quickly stepped in and assured me we were on the right ship and we were going to Amsterdam then due north through all the fjords.

Our arrival into Amsterdam was about two hours later than scheduled (after the dinner incident, the type A in me found the ports of call listing along with the times) because of the heavy shipping traffic through the single lock that feeds many of the Amsterdam ports.  As we’d made no plans, it didn’t bother us too much; it actually allowed us to eat lunch on the ship prior to seeing the city and still be back on board for dinner.  I did feel bad for some of our dinner table partners though.  They had prebooked some attractions to minimize their time in lines.  Because we were so late, they missed their timeslots and weren’t able to see what they’d paid for!

Having been to Amsterdam before, there wasn’t a whole lot left on our must see list.  We felt right at home with our greeting as we got off the boat.

From there we wondered through the canals and lanes of the city all while managing to stay out of the Red Light District (see Daddy, it is possible!).

I don’t know how many people live in the greater Amsterdam area, but I have to believe that there are more bicycles in the city than people.  Everywhere you look there is someone on a bike.  Every railing you come across has a dozen or so locked to it.  Outside of some shops, you’ll just see a bike chained to itself leaning against a wall.  The ‘parking lot’ at the train station has to take the prize though.  How you find yours in this mess?

We also wonder if the canals and general moistness of the land is starting to undermine the integrity of foundations in Amsterdam.

This building was leaning forward a good 6-8 feet at the top compared to the one next door.  I couldn’t believe it was still standing!

A short walk back to our cruise ship to load up for the trip through the North Sea and into the Fjords!

Matt & Amber

Cousins Matt & Amber made the trip across the pond to see some of Matt's family and we were thrilled to get to spend a little time with them while we were all in the country. We even managed to get a picture of the four of us together. No idea how Matt and I got so lucky to hang out with these two beautiful women!

Oh where is my puppy?

This morning when I went to let Daisy out of her crate, I was greeted by this:

Yeah, no idea what she was up to last night...

Chad and Allison came over for a visit, Mmmm! Wait, what?

So we took a break recently from our own travels to play host to Chad and Allison for a few days this past week. We met them in Abilene back in 2004 and have managed to keep in touch through both our various moves over the years and we find it so funny that they have settled about 5 minutes from Amanda's aunt in Kansas now.

We worked for a solid two years to convince Allison that she wanted to come visit (well maybe, we worked on Allison for a week, then she worked on Chad for two years :D).  We're so glad they finally made it over!

Unfortunately we are horrible hosts and only took a few pictures of their visit so I am pirating some from their Facebook pages in an attempt to cover for our oversight. Wait did I say that out loud? Well, dang!

Anyway, we had a wonderful week showing Chad & Allison places like the Borough Markets, Camden Town, National Galleries and Greenwich Park and have really missed them since they returned home. Perhaps not quite as much as Daisy and Ginger miss them, but still an awful lot.

Ginger is giving me the "am I in trouble stare" in this picture...

...but notice she's in no hurry to move.

The photos below are an exceptionally small sample of everything we got to share but we hope they had as much fun visiting as we did playing host!

Cream Tea - Mmmm!

Pub lunch in Greenwich. Fish and Chips would arrive shortly after this...Mmmm!

The life size plaster cast of Trajans Column from Rome. The top is in the fore ground while the base is directly behind it on the right. Mmmm! Wait, what?

We're so glad you guys got to come out for a visit and we look forward to seeing you again sometime after we return home this summer!